[Funding alert] Rural-tech startup Hesa raises $2.3 mn in Pre series A round

Hesa, a ruraltech startup has raised $2.3 million in its pre-Series A funding round led by Venture Catalysts.

The round also saw participation from angel networks Faad, IPV, and WFC, and other investors.

The startup plans to use the funds to expand Hesa’s geographic footprint, boost the technology vertical, and develop agri-fintech and commerce offerings.

Telengana-based Hesa was founded in 2019 by Vamsi Udayagiri and Hema Nandiraju, It integrates value chains in rural India by enabling local brands and businesses to come together as a community.

The startup provides these businesses with a technology-based platform that empowers businesses to access, showcase, display and transact with their customer base in remote and rural areas of the country.

It claims to connect more than 65 brands to 600,000 rural customers through 8000 partners in approximately 5000 Indian villages. The company has tied up with brands like Wycool, BigHaat, Walmart, HDFC Life, Reliance General Insurance and Apollo Hospitals.

“Our primary objective is to provide a connection between financial services providers with their last-mile target consumers using a phygital approach. We will continue to expand and empower businesses to ride the rural value chain for buying and selling, leveraging our technology and human capabilities,” said,Vamsi Udayagiri, Founder and CEO of Hesa.

“This investment has created a very effective agri-financial services marketplace to plug the demand-supply gap,” said Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, President, and Co-founder, Venture Catalysts.

“With the size of populace residing in rural areas, there is a growing need to erase the boundary between urban India and rural Bharat. Hesa is committed to serving these lesser-served markets through its superior, cutting-edge technological platform in a seamless manner,” he added.

In June 2021, Hesa had raised $2 million in a seed funding round led by Manish Modi of Mastermind Capital at Venture Catalysts (VCats) along with Accelerator Fund, 9Unicorns.

About Hesa

Rural commerce ecosystem is still driven by trust, relationships, and physical interactions. But without a digital interface, the potential is largely untapped. They are changing that by offering every business access to its targeted rural population through our three-tiered social, digital and physical platform.

Hesa is indeed connecting Bharat with India Phygitally. They are bridging the gap for the world’s largest customer base that resides in rural India by being the ONE-STOP solution for Corporates, SMEs, Banks, Government and NGOs who wish to access rural India, for buy-sell propositions including brand promotions and social responsibilities. They also connect the rural entrepreneurs including farmers to sell their products in the market.

They are proud of the user-friendly tech platform they have built, which is supported and supplemented by the efforts of the Village Level Entrepreneurs, the ‘Hesaathis’, that allows their clients to take their businesses and dreams to each and every village in India.

This integrated last-mile access and connect to their target customers is a winning proposition for businesses across categories and rural India.